AI Mocap Research — Cascadeur

What it is

Cascadeur is standalone 3D software used for creating, cleaning up, and editing animation. Its main draw is AI-assisted and physics-based tools for rapidly creating quality realistic animations. It works with .fbx, .dae, and .usd files, has Python integration and rigging capabilities, and also has a robust series of animation tutorials accessible via YouTube.

Its tools for creating hand-keyed animations are very robust, especially with their automatic systems, and it's versatile enough to work with mocap animations through the Interval Edit Mode and multiple rig systems.

Notes

• Cascadeur's timeline system is both a timeline and organization system at once, similar to UE's Sequencer system. Each track has its own grouping of objects in "folders" and its own keys, and tracks can be created or merged as needed for organization. These do not behave like animation layers like you'd expect though.
• There are 3 types of rig systems: Auto-Posing, Point, and Box. The really cool thing about these rig systems is that they are all active at the same time — you can swap between them on the fly and make adjustments very easily.
  • Auto-Posing is a rig system that dynamically adjusts posing to account for any controllers that are "active." Any active controller will affect inactive controllers, but not vice versa. This seems to be the best way to use Cascadeur for keyframing, and may also be useful for mocap cleanup, though I have yet to find a decent workflow for that.
    • This dynamism also allows for dynamic pivots and mirroring.
    • A very useful feature for precise movement: hold CTRL while moving a controller. This is INCREDIBLY useful for ensuring exact placement and proper contact points.
  • Point is closer to a basic rig system, though it has some automatic pulling and stretching to help prevent hyper-extension, adjustable by fixing a point position as necessary. This is the system that works best for cleaning up mocap.
  • Box is much more basic and is not influenced by Cascadeur's physics system. They seem to be useful for facial rigs or props.
• Auto-Physics is a system that automatically handles the physics needed to perform a specific action, useful while keyframing animations. It has settings to account for secondary motion, compensation needed to maintain balance, and smoothing. In practical terms, it takes care of much of the body motion that isn't intentional — if I wanted to walk, I don't think about lifting my foot, balancing my weight so I don't fall, maintaining momentum, etc.
• Animation Unbaking — similar to "simplify curve" or "key reduction" filters in Maya, this gets rid of noise while making the animation easier to work with. It also determines the best interp setting between poses, and works in conjunction with Auto-Physics to keep generated animation as workable as possible. Useful for mocap cleanup and for taking generated inbetweening animation and putting it in a workable state.
• Inbetweening — this tool takes the keyframes you set and generates the necessary motion between them to achieve those poses as realistically as possible. THIS IS AMAZING. Any changes made to keyframes or keyframes added require regenerating the motion.
  • Note that enough frames must exist to generate movement properly, otherwise the motion will look unrealistic — recommended to use Auto-Physics in parallel to help.
  • They also have different "styles" to determine the output of the generated animation, though this may not be fully implemented yet. Strong keyframe poses are recommended to help describe expected motion, with styles filling in the gaps.
• Fulcrum Motion Cleaning — with one click, this cleans up foot placement issues, ensuring the foot stays at ground level while maintaining any significant ankle or foot motion. Can be used multiple times.
• Interval Edit Mode — a mode for making broad edits across sections of animation, similar to creating an animation layer and setting a key for layered motion on top. Combining this with Fulcrum Motion Cleaning produces REALLY good foot planting motion while maintaining subtle motion in the foot and ankle.

Issues and Concerns

• Be absolutely certain that the skeleton you're importing onto is the same as the skeleton the animation data was recorded on. I captured mocap on Rokoko Vision, and the Rokoko rig that came with Cascadeur was not named the same, causing the import to fail. It was easy enough to rename the relevant node and the import happened fine — just something to watch for.
• Retargeting appears to be as simple as hitting "Retargeting Copy" and "Retargeting Paste" from one Cascadeur scene to another, though this does require a Pro version. Theoretically this should allow retargeting any animation from Rokoko (or other mocap) to your own character.
• Cascadeur's track system does NOT behave like animation layers. There is no blending between tracks — they behave like absolute systems. Use Interval Edit Mode instead to make broad changes like raising hips.